Chapter 992

Having caught up to his mother, Perospero listens as she verifies the tie to Kaidou and takes ownership of the whole scheme, saying it originated with her. He brings up the crew's goal of crowning her ruler of the pirates; her reply, a question about whether her own children have lost faith in her, quiets his doubts. Marco speaks up next, noting that whatever bargain he once had with Perospero to topple Kaidou has now collapsed. Though the Emperor scolds him for the attempt and dismisses Whitebeard's leftover crew as lost souls, Marco counters that a dead captain no longer binds them to any old promise, and she lets the point go.

Carrot, meanwhile, slips past Wanda and admits she is chasing Perospero to settle the score for Pedro. Luffy pushes forward toward the summit as the swordsmen open a lane ahead of him, and Yamato stays on the trail of Shinobu and Momonosuke. Away from the fighting, Black Maria and a few crewmates hole up in a tatami chamber and coax a song from her; she picks up her shamisen and starts a story while, above, the Scabbards storm Kaidou. His bellow calls down lightning that fractures the floor, yet Nekomamushi rakes his skull and Kawamatsu whips a ring-shaped slash around it, both drawing blood to the horror of the beast's followers.

Inuarashi spears the Emperor with his blade-tipped prosthetic while Kikunojo and Izou pepper him with flying cuts and gunfire. Unable to fathom why blows that look nothing like Oden's can pierce him, Kaidou winds up for another Bolo Breath. Raizo intercepts it, unfurling a colossal scroll that drinks in the entire blast, coils around the dragon's frame, and then vents the trapped fire straight back, though Kaidou steps out of the inferno unmarked. Kin'emon recalls Oden once volunteering to pass down his Oden Nitoryu and the retainers politely declining; Toki later explained they had refused only because their shared devotion would have set them fighting over who ranked first among his pupils.

In the present moment, a group of four retainers unsheathe a pair of blades apiece and settle into the master's stance: Denjiro, Ashura Doji, Inuarashi, and Kin'emon among them. Kaidou belittles the imitation as worthless and begins yet another Bolo Breath, but the quartet springs at him together and slashes across the mark Oden carved into him two decades prior. The issue clarifies that Marco and Perospero's earlier meeting stemmed from a proposal, now void, to jointly bring down Kaidou. The color spread depicts the Straw Hats eating aboard a Sea Train, with a Kumamon figure beside Jinbe and Kumamoto Castle pictured behind Franky.